How to Block Porn on iPad (and Make It Stay Blocked)

An iPad runs the same Screen Time system as an iPhone, so the blocking mechanics are identical. So is the failure mode: every setting can be undone in under a minute by the person who set it up. Here's the toolkit, and then the part that makes it hold.

The settings that block

1. Turn on Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Content Restrictions → Web Content → Limit Adult Websites. Safari starts filtering, and Private Browsing disappears while the restriction is on.
2. Add your repeat-offender sites to Never Allow under the same screen.
3. Lock SafeSearch so explicit results stop surfacing in search.
4. Optionally point the iPad at a family-filter DNS resolver as a network-level net.

Twenty minutes, no downloads, genuinely effective blocking. Until it isn't.

The loophole

You know your own Screen Time passcode. All four layers above switch off in under a minute, silently, at no cost, and "Forgot Passcode?" hands control back through your own Apple ID even if someone else set it. The 2am version of you has admin rights over the daytime version's rules, for reasons covered in why "Limit Adult Websites" keeps failing.

Making it hold

Pledgely closes the loophole with stakes. The app runs on iPad and iPhone, blocks adult content system-wide using Apple's Screen Time technology (every browser, every app), and backs the blocker with a daily pledge of your own money, $1 to $100, set up on the web at pledgely.app. Browsing is never monitored: Pledgely collects zero browsing data, and visiting a blocked site costs nothing. Switching the blocker off mid-cycle is the one event that charges your pledge; keep it on and every hold is released.

One more thing worth doing: your phone travels with you and your iPad usually doesn't, so protect both. A blocker on one device and a free pass on the other just moves the habit sideways.

Next: How to block porn on iPhone (the full picture)